Storm in the Room (Steven Universe Season 4 Episode 16) - 'Toon Reviews 29

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Storm in the Room

A key factor to this show’s high quality is how it can easily get emotionally investing, maybe the best out of any show.  One big way it accomplishes this trait is having a cartoon to take in the emotional effects of a recent big adventure. 

At this point, Steven has just come back from the human zoo. It’s not enough that he’s seen more disturbing views on Earth from Homeworld Gems. Now he’s under the impression that his mother, Rose Quartz, shattering Pink Diamond moved the other Diamonds to be more hostile than ever towards the planet.  Keeping the stories of her greatness he’s heard from the Crystal Gems all his life in mind, this no doubt leaves complicated feelings Steven understandably doesn’t want to think of.  The opening sequence of thinking of fun things to do with Connie as she waits for her own mom may seem long, but works through how he’s trying to avoid his complications.  This is further shown when after Connie’s mom does arrive to take her home, there’s a silent sequence of Steven seeming deep in thought.  His somber look as he takes off his human zoo loin cloth and stick-on earrings and makes himself dinner are a big indication that he’s really not as cheerful as he seemed earlier. 

Then everything clicks when he looks up at the portrait of Rose, saying he wants to know the real her.  As past events have shown, there is a place for Steven to fill the void left by his mother, and he’s drawn exactly there.  Rose’s room in the Crystal Gem temple, as many may remember, is a place full of clouds that can give Steven anything he wants.  For that, it easily fulfills his desire to show him his mother.  Then much of the cartoon looks into Steven’s emotional satisfaction of going through what it ideally feels like to have a mom.  The image of him and Rose doing things like playing video games and sports is the perfect image of what people would want family bonding to be like.  It also helps that there’s a touch of Rose’s own qualities as she gives a passionate speech about the beauty of sports and how they’re different yet still the same. 

There’s also a natural tonal shift from light-hearted to emotional as Steven decides to take a picture of him and Rose, but only he himself shows up on his camera phone.  This awakens the hard truth that Rose was never really there.  It was just the room projecting what Steven wants her to be like, and now it forms a storm to reflect all the dark secrets he’s learned about her. 

Bubbling away Bismuth, causing Homeworld to want to destroy Earth, abandoning her friends without warning, and keeping secrets has broken Steven’s view on Rose.  With everything he’s learned, he can no longer see her as the perfect Gem everyone called her.  On a side note, with everything he will learn in time, he’s very accurate at calling her a liar who hid from the messes she made.  There is some hope for goodness in her when the vision of Rose reminds Steven of the genuine love for him in a message in the tape she left him inside Lion.  That’s certainly meaningful then, and it still is now although Steven is still understandably confused by her albeit calm for the moment.  Nevertheless, it’s highly satisfactory when his dad and the main Crystal Gems appear at the end, the very image of a loving family he knows he can depend on. 

Even without big action sequences or direct ties to the plot, this cartoon adds plenty of weight to everything by exploring the emotional after effects.  It’s well-staged, well-written, does justice for the characters, and helps make the show one of animation’s marvels.

A++

Season 4 Ranking

1.      Storm in the Room

2.      Mindful Education

3.      That Will Be All

4.      Steven’s Dream

5.      Last One Out of Beach City

6.      The Zoo

7.      Gem Heist

8.      Gem Harvest

9.      Three Gems and a Baby

10.  Adventures in Light Distortion

11.  Buddy’s Book

12.  Know Your Fusion

13.  The New Crystal Gems

14.  Kindergarten Kid

15.  Future Boy Zoltron

16.  Onion Gang

The next Steven Universe review moves away from the world-building, plot development, and solid emotions with a less than satisfactory showing of Ronaldo thinking he can be a Crystal Gem.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "The Voltron Show" from what else but Voltron: Legendary Defender.

If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

Gown and Out / Breaking Dad (The Loud House Season 3 Episode 12) - 'Toon Reviews 30

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Gown and Out

At this point in the series, it’s hard to consider Lola as all-out vain and bratty.  Plenty of starring roles have shown that for all her faults, she’s an endearing human being with her own challenges, and abilities to learn and grow from her experiences.  Roles like this always bring something cute to the forefront, and this cartoon is no different. 

A big part of Lola’s character is that she’s always setting out to be the best of the best when it comes to pageants.  She can’t even picture the very idea of losing one, and it doesn’t seem like that’s happening anytime soon as we open with her winning the top prize at one.  On a side note, there’s another strong showing of continuity with plenty of references to Lincoln knowing the exact details of her pageant routine.  He did majorly study up on the subject a while back.  Anyway, Lola’s role in this pageant is so great, she’s invited to take part in a regional pageant with many little girls from across the state.  She’s so excited about it, arrangements have to be made for Lori, the eldest Loud, to go with her while the parents are too busy. 

For all the times Lola has been over-confident with her appearance and has come out on top, what follows is a bold direction for her.  Many of the contestants are just as focused on being beautiful and pageant worthy as she has, probably more even.  They’ve even had far more professional accomplishments than her.  This makes Lola feel very intimidated by the competition, and any confidence she had in herself is quickly diminished.  She still holds onto some of her perfectionist tendencies through getting nauseous from just saying the word losing, but the major point remains and she’s still relatable. 

While this is so, Lola’s reaction to these newfound anxieties is kind of cheap and works a little too well.  With a little makeup on the day of the pageant, she makes Lori think she’s sick and unable to compete.  Even if it’s easy to debunk if one were to closely observe her blotches and spots and her overacting, Lori easily buys into the act.  Out of this though, we get a lot of great support from Lori.  She has the opportunity for a spa day from accompanying Lola, but while believing her sister’s sick, she chooses family over her own needs.  This is among her most wholesome moments as the oldest sibling in the family and shows the makings of a great caretaker. 

In fact, her care is so big, Lola ends up breaking down and tells her the truth about her condition as well as her fears of the competition.  Rather than being sore about the lying, Lori understands why Lola did it, and even recounts to her that she was in the same position too.  In the end, Lori provides Lola with honest yet encouraging advice that while competitions get tougher as you get older, it’s better to try than back out.  So, with the aid of Lincoln’s beauty expertise, Lori’s encouragement gets Lola to try the pageant anyway.  The main message proves effective as Lola puts on a great performance, even if she ends up not winning.  She’s still left with the thrill of getting there and even somewhat intimidates the other girls for next year’s regional pageant. 

In all, this cartoon is a cutely relatable experience enhanced by meaningful character development, strong continuity, and some of the most genuine family love.

A

Breaking Dad

Under the impression that the show keeps improving with every new season, I also believe it gets slightly more mature with its plots as well.  Rather than just focusing on the hijinks the kids get up to, there are a few instances dealing with the subject of parenthood.  Most of them involve the more interesting parent in the Loud family, Dad through what he gets up to when trying to be loving and supportive to his kids.  As a result, what he gets up to here can resonate well with parents trying to connect with kids, especially when they’re just infants still getting to know the world.  There’s also a strong reminder that running a family means making some sacrifices at times. 

Fitting a trend of making one-off gags from earlier seasons more prominent in later ones, Dad is excited to attend a cowbell festival.  However, he’s unable to find a suitable caretaker for Lily with her daycare out of commission.  Dad’s at the risk of missing the festival, but is able to convince next-door neighbor, Mr. Grouse, to watch over Lily for the day.  Although Mr. Grouse is not open to babysitting and has to be bribed with lasagna to do it as usual, it’s still remarkable how he’s more social and open to helping the Louds than before.  Even though he has to constantly call Dad for help, he does follow his instructions well enough to please Lily.  It would be a lot easier if Dad just followed Mr. Grouse’s suggestions to just come home and take care of Lily, and it’s at this point where putting cowbells first gets concerning. 

However, this direction works for the consequences it seems to bring.  Because he put his own interests first, Dad finds that Lily appears to be more attached to Mr. Grouse than him by calling him “da-da” and not wanting him to leave.  It’s at this point where parents can truly relate to this cartoon.  When people have kids, the biggest thing to hope for is that they’ll look up to you and trust they’ll be taken care of.  Not being considered a mom or dad to a kid can really leave a big sting and be hard to live with if you think about it.  Dad experiencing this pushes him to pull out all stops to please Lily and let her know who her real father is.  He spends a whole day appeasing any interest she develops be it her usual customs, buying her things at the mall, and keeping her home from the reopened day care.  It’s a crazy amount of affection for sure, but the weight behind Dad’s insane actions is undeniable especially when Lily still calls Mr. Grouse “da-da” despite the attempts. 

In the end though, it turns out Lily was calling Mr. Grouse that because he was wearing one of Dad’s sweaters, making good use of an earlier scene.  This reveal is somewhat clever, but also a little obvious if you think about it hard enough.  I could also say that Dad’s fears turning out to not be nonexistent is a bit of a cop-out, but kids drifting away from parents who put their interests first feels like it can really happen. 

It’s not the most stand-out cautionary tale, but it makes its point all things considered.  Enhanced by Dad’s genuine desire to be seen as a good parent, Lily’s cuteness, and Mr. Grouse’s bonding with her, this is an adorable cartoon literally great for the whole family.

A

The Ranking

1.      Head Poet’s Anxiety

2.      Roadie to Nowhere

3.      Shop Girl

4.      Breaking Dad

5.      Gown and Out

6.      Fandom Pains

7.      Insta-Gran

8.      Selfie Improvement

9.      Net Gains

10.  No Place Like Homeschool

11.  The Mad Scientist

12.  City Slickers

13.  Missed Connection

14.  Fool Me Twice

15.  Deal Me Out

16.  Teachers’ Union

17.  Tripped!

18.  White Hare

19.  A Fridge Too Far

20.  Pasture Bedtime

21.  Friendzy

22.  Pipe Dreams

23.  Rita Her Rights

The next Loud House review brings the only true dud of this season involving finding a place to stay while termites are in the home, and Lincoln brings down his own cartoon by being a lazy mooch in an assignment.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is another marvel from Steven Universe "Storm in the Room."

If you would like to check out other Loud House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

The New Crystal Gems (Steven Universe Season 4 Episode 15) - 'Toon Reviews 29

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

The New Crystal Gems

It’s easy to forget how big the cast of this show really is.  A good reminder is the possibility of cartoons that bring together characters you’ve never seen interact with before.  That’s a huge selling point with this cartoon featuring the first team up of one of the most important human characters, Connie, with major supporting Gems, Peridot and Lapis.

Everything goes down in a flashback highlighting what went on back home while Steven and the main Crystal Gems were going to the human zoo.  This gives potential to see how well these characters can take on the task of their usual task of protecting humanity, or at least help Beach City in some way.  Ultimately, what they ended up doing while in the role of the Crystal Gems was kind of lacking in scope and action. Rather than doing something like protecting people in deadly situations or stopping a corrupted Gem, Connie, Peridot, and Lapis basically did menial work by running the carwash. 

Disappointing as this is, there are plenty of factors to make this direction work.  While Connie has had experience dealing with heavy Gem missions, protecting humanity is somewhat new to Peridot and Lapis.  Sure, Peridot had a hand in stopping the Cluster, but that didn’t involve directly interacting or helping people, and was different from the Crystal Gems’ usual work.  They can’t really do the usual tasks if they can’t help with little things like managing a carwash.  Plus, since Lapis and Peridot's thing is observing and trying to understand the customs of Earth, this whole event turns out to be a pretty fun display of their thought process.  Peridot getting analytical over the concept of working as the Crystal Gems team is a humorous approach with a slightly off conclusion that it means acting as someone on the team.  Plus, her ego where she believes she should be the strongest of the group, Garnet, makes for a few humorous lines.  Lapis even gets a good laugh by playing her part and showing that she can tell who's who, which is big considering her complicated relationship with the Crystal Gems. 

At first, this setup was effective as they impressed the carwash customers by running things with their powers, particularly Peridot’s metal controlling and Lapis’ use of water.  This is the true way to manage things in Beach City by being true to themselves.  Eventually, acting as other characters turned more important than doing a great job.  Desperate attempts for Peridot to be the best and Lapis trying too hard to be funny like Amethyst just caused a lot of commotion and destruction.  This is where the cartoon starts losing points for being so quick to turn away from a productive practice for actions that obviously wouldn’t work.  Further boneheaded was Peridot and Lapis fighting over dominance without regard for anyone and Connie being too awkward to give a speech as good as Steven’s. 

Thankfully this part is short and Connie eventually did what was best by pointing out logical solutions.  It was because of her that everyone realized that acting as people they’re not is not as effective as doing their own thing.  This put everyone on the right track through at least cleaning up the mess and making a new carwash sign as who they really are, the Crystal Temps. 

Ultimately, the light-hearted story doesn’t make this cartoon stand as monumental as it could be.  Still, it brings plenty of good for Connie, Lapis, and Peridot to prove their worth as part of the team with mostly strong chemistry all throughout.  It’s a fun show of characters be they human or Gem.

A-

Season 4 Ranking

1.      Mindful Education

2.      That Will Be All

3.      Steven’s Dream

4.      Last One Out of Beach City

5.      The Zoo

6.      Gem Heist

7.      Gem Harvest

8.      Three Gems and a Baby

9.      Adventures in Light Distortion

10.  Buddy’s Book

11.  Know Your Fusion

12.  The New Crystal Gems

13.  Kindergarten Kid

14.  Future Boy Zoltron

15.  Onion Gang

The next Steven Universe review plays more to the show's strengths as Steven deals with the emotional turmoil brought by his questions of his mother by finding a way to talk with her in Rose's room.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Gown and Out" and "Breaking Dad" from The Loud House.

If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.